Snips & Snipes 2 July 2014

The Klitschko brothers have always done things pretty much their own way and been very successful. They continue that pattern by ignoring an old adage about not mixing sport with politics. Vitali has been very active and had a high profile in politics in Ukraine after helping to bring about the change of government and winning election as mayor of Kiev. Wlad has had a lower profile but that is no longer the case. The two brothers have jointly financed the equipping of a military battalion in Kiev. It will not be arms or ammunition but other items of equipment needed by an armed unit. They have both donated generously to charities in the past but that has been seen as non-political. They have understandably nailed their colours to the wall now.

Wlad is preparing for his defence against Kubrat Pulev and the Bulgarian has pulled a “Mayweather”. He is insisting that additional testing be done for banned substances. The German body under whose supervision the title fight will take place only carries out testing after the fight. Pulev has said that he has been randomly tested six times in the past year and he wants random testing of Klitschko leading up to the fight. Klitschko’s team has waived that aside saying the Wlad travels too much for random testing to be feasible. Not a very good excuse as he will not be roaming all over Europe to do his training. After the Sam Solomon vs. Felix Sturm testing debacle Pulev obviously does not trust the German testers, but he, unlike Manny Pacquiao, has a weak hand so if Klitschko says no-it will be no and the fight will go ahead with post fight testing only. There have been no questions with regard to substance use by either Klitschko although Vitali missed the 1996 Olympics because he was under suspension for the use of steroids which he said he had taken unknowingly to help with an injury. A long time ago.

Testing has also raised it head in regard to last weekends fight between Terrence Crawford and Yuriorkis Gamboa. The Cuban’s team has protested as they claim that they were never given a post fight test and that no testing was carried out. They are not looking for the decision to be changed but are asking the WBO for an explanation. Strange they should be so keen to be tested as a year ago Gamboa’s name appeared on a list of clients of a Miami firm being investigates for the supply of banned substances.

HBO were delighted with the response to the Crawford vs. Gamboa fight as it averaged 1,200,000 buys and topped out at 1,286,000. Very good figures for a match between a guy who has only just reached championship level this year and  a guy who had fought only once in 2012 and once in 2013 and not fought for a year. Someone showed good commercial nous in making this one.

There is almost no chance of Crawford vs. Miguel Vasquez unifier as the IBF champion has signed with Al Haymon and Haymon is very reluctant to do business with Top Rank. Crawford’s list of likely opponents seems to be Ray Beltran, Paulus Moses and Jorge Linares. It will be interesting to see what viewer figures he draws against any of these.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. decided not to give the fans a say in who his next opponent will be and instead has decided to give Marcos Maidana a well deserved return in September. The only difference to when he chose to fight Maidana the first time is this time he did not give the fans a chance to have their say-and be ignored. Maidana has no title to offer this time so may have to take a pay cut but will still walk away with $1 million plus.

A Miguel Cotto vs. Tim Bradley fight is being talked up furiously but nothing settled yet. There has been talk of the fight being at a catch weight of 156lbs and again Bradley will get the short end of the purse.

Bermane Stiverne has said that he wants to defend his WBC title against Deontay Wilder. With no unification fight on the horizon this is as big a fight as there is for both fighters. It was strange seeing a Don King fighter actually speaking let alone saying who he wants to defend against. Larry Homes, Mike Tyson etc. never uttered a word about potential opponents-Another sign the old man is slipping.

Brit Ola Afolabi will fight on the undercard to the Gennady Golovkin vs. Daniel Geale fight on 26 July. The IBO cruiser champion was to have fought Pavel Kolodziej but the Pole declined due to the short notice. Afolabi is waiting to find out who his opponent will be. With Afolabi the IBF No 4(3) it will be an IBF eliminator.

The IBF champion Yoan Pablo Hernandez will defend the title on 16 August in Erfurt against perennial challenger Firat Arslan.

Still on cruiserweights. Former WBC champion Juan Carlos Gomez continues his comeback with a fight this weekend on the Ruslan Chagaev vs. Fres Oquendo secondary WBA title fight show. The 40-year-old Gomez will face unbeaten Goran Delic (24-0). Bosnian Delic, also 40, has impressive statistics but he has had only three fights in the last two years. He won them all-sounds good- but two of his victims had never had a fight and the guy he beat in November was 0-1. It is frightening to think that Gomez first won the WBC title 16 years ago. Well it frightens me anyway.

The August 2 light heavyweight title fight in Atlantic City where Sergey Kovalev defends his title against Aussie Blake Caparello will feature a real contrast in styles. It will be big puncher Kovalev against the clever but light punching southpaw Caparello and a win for the Australian would be a huge upset.  Another light heavyweight fight on the card will see Isaac Chilemba facing Cory Cummings. The Malawian boxer is WBC No 2 and WBO 11 and after his win over Denis Grachev in March this could be a rehearsal for a fight with Kovalev-if Kovalev wins of course.

You have to feel a little sorry for Saki Bika. The WBC super middle champion’s name never comes up when any big money matches are talked about. The problem is that he is a difficult opponent and not a crowd puller so none of the big names needs or wants him. For his next fight Bika will go over old ground and fight a rematch with Anthony Dirrell on August 16. Bike retained his title with a split draw against Dirrell in December. It is a no win situation for Bika. If he wins his profile will not grow much and if he losses he will struggle to get back into the picture.

There is talk of an IBF eliminator at middleweight between Curtis Stevens and Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam in September. The fight was first offered to Felix Sturm but he declined so N’Jikam, a former WBA and WBO interim champion may take his place.

Boxing fans in New Zealand will be holding their collective breath this weekend. Their heavyweight hope Joseph Parker tackles experienced Brian Minto. The 22-year-old New Zealander is 8-0 with 7 wins by KO/TKO including Frans Botha and Marcelo Nascimento in his list of victims. His interim PABA title will be on the line with the WBO Oriental title up for grabs. The 39-year-old Minto is past his best but broke New Zealand hearts in December when he ended the career of Shane Cameron. Aussie prospect Jeff Horn and world rated New Zealander Robert Berridge will also fight opponents on the card.

Brandon Rios will return to action on 2 August with Argentinian Diego Chaves as his opponent. After two losses in a row Rios will stay at welter and try to rebuild. In July last year Chaves lost his interim WBA title when he was knocked out in ten rounds by Keith Thurman.

Mexican fans are eagerly awaiting the war on Friday which will feature WBC No 11 super feather Dante Jardon against unbeaten banger Adrian Estrella. Jardon (24-4) has won 20 of his 24 victories by KO/TKO and Estrella is 17-0 with all 17 wins by KO/TKO. Some are comparing it to the Carlos Zarate vs. Alfonso Zamora war in 1977. However Zarate was WBC champion with 45 wins 44 by KO/.TKO and Zamora was WBA champion with a 29-0 record and all 29 wins by KO/TKO. It may be a great fight but not in the same class as the Z-Bombers meeting.

Boxing in South Africa continues to be in turmoil. The governing body BSA was found guilty of making defamation statements against promoter Branco Milenkovic over the stripping by the IBF of their title from South African female fighter Noni Tenge.  Moffat Qithi, the then CEO of BSA, had claimed that Milenkovic was responsible for Tenge being stripped of the title and that he had breached his contract with the boxer. The judge found both statements to be defamatory and “inspired by malice” and awarded Milenkovic ZAR 500,000 (approx $47,000) half to be paid by Qithi and half by BSA. Qithi is no longer with BSA having been dismissed after it was found he had concealed a criminal conviction when applying for the post. Whilst the amount is small by many standards it is nevertheless the largest defamation award in the legal history of South Africa. The sting in the tail is that the BSA were ordered to pay cost of the case that could run to almost $200,000, all of which will be tax payers money as the BSA is a government funded organisation. Milenkovic has another case pending with the BSA over the allocation of broadcasting rights which the BSA want to take to themselves and until this is resolved the main sports broadcasting channel in South Africa is refusing to televise fights leading to a deadlock brought about by the BSA actions.

The world’s cruiserweight may have held their collective breaths last week. WBA champion Denis Lebedev was involved in a car accident on a rain washed road. Luckily neither Lebedev or his two children were injured-cars and boxers-a bad mix.

Unbeaten Belgian 15-0-1 Steve Jamoye won’t be fighting anytime soon. The 23-year-old pleaded guilty to 10 counts of robbery, in some of which firearms were used and discharged but no one hurt. He has been sentenced to four years for the offences.

Any association between Madonna and boxing may not strike you immediately. No one is suggesting that female boxers should wear conical bras, but Madonna is making a contribution. The singing super star was brought up in Detroit and as part of her financial aid to help rejuvenate her old home territory she has provided funding for the Downtown Youth Boxing Gym to help get kids off the streets. Good one Madonna-I may even buy one of your records even if I am an Ella fan.

The WBC has also been very generous. For them it was in the case of Oscar Gonzalez. They have donated $50,000 to the family of Oscar who died in February two days after being knocked out in a fight. It was not a WBC title fight so it is a very creditable gesture on their part.

Good also to see that the Californian State Legislative held a ceremony recently to pay homage to Oscar De La Hoya for the contribution his Golden Boy Promotion Group has made to the State and the example set for other Californians of Mexican descent.

I saved a surprise for the end. The WBA have considered things very carefully and decided that what boxing is sadly lacking is titles. To remedy this sad defect they have now formed an Oceania Region. More titles coming our way. This has to be the most generous sanctioning body and with a stroke of the pen they form a whole new book of titles, confuse everyone including themselves and rope in more sanctioning fees. Did you really think the pow wow of the WBC, IBF and WBA would change things for the better?